Columbus added two goals from Mathieu Olivier from there and put the game away, winning its sixth in a row and 10th of 11.
What a way to return to the lineup, and Fabbro was quickly met by an embrace from his teammates.
“Obviously I’m very thankful that I’m healthy again and able to play this year,” he said. “Sitting out and seeing the boys doing what they’re doing right now is amazing, and obviously a big credit to them to get us back in this race. I just want to come in here and do what I can to help the team win.”
Fabbro played 14:17 in his return, putting three shots on goal and blocking a pair of shots (no easy task given how the foot still must feel). With Fabbro on the ice, the Blue Jackets had a 10-3 edge in shots on goal at 5-on-5 per Natural Stat Trick.
“Good for him,” head coach Rick Bowness said. “Not only the goal, but I thought he played very, very well. You notice the goal and I notice all the little things that he did well out there to help us win. He moved the puck well, his gaps were good, and I thought he did a really good job in our zone, so good on him.”
2. The Blue Jackets posted their second shutout in the last six games thanks to some wonderful synergy between the team’s defense and goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.
As noted earlier, this was a playoff-style affair in the way both teams battled for ice, and there simply wasn’t much space for beautiful offensive plays or copious amounts of scoring chances.
In the end, the Blue Jackets outlasted the Devils, outshooting the home team 13-7 in the third period and scoring all three goals. New Jersey finished with just 24 shots on goal, all turned aside by Merzlikins.
It was yet another big step for a team that has turned up its defensive game while going 9-1-0 in 10 games under Bowness.
“We’re hunting teams,” Fabbro said. “We’re not sitting back on our heels. We’re playing on our toes all game, and I think you saw tonight we just stuck with our game longer than they did and it obviously paid off.”
That focus on defending helped make it easy on Merzlikins, who made some excellent saves but by and large wasn’t forced to do anything that will end up on the highlight reels. The Blue Jackets gave him open lanes to see shots and cleared defenders from the netfront, and in turn Merzlikins played a cool, collected game that allowed him to earn his first shutout since Oct. 30, 2024, against the Islanders.
“We are putting the pressure a lot more on the opponents, and we are clearing more in front of the net,” Merzlikins said. “Me and (Jet Greaves), we see more pucks, and I think it makes our life easier.”
The shutout was the 12th of Merzlikins' career, allowing him to tie Marc Denis for third in franchise history. Once Olivier put the game away with an empty-net goal with 4:00 to play – more on that in a second – the Blue Jackets turned their attention to preserving the blanking and got the job done.
“Elvis played amazing today and made some really big stops when we needed him to,” Fabbro said. “You could even see (Adam) Fantilli at the end blocking shots just to do what we can do to help him out, and big credit to Elvis tonight. I think he played a great game.”
3. You probably can’t score two more different goals than the pair Olivier put home to ice the game.
Talking to the media the morning before the game, Bowness noted the next step for the Blue Jackets in holding third-period leads would be extending them with another goal, and Olivier must have been listening because did the honors Tuesday in Newark with his second two-goal game of the season.
His first tally with 7:55 was done with a goal scorer’s touch, as Olivier was fed in behind the defense by Cole Sillinger, faked to his forehand, turned the puck to his backhand and slid it past Markström to double the CBJ advantage.
Then, after the Devils pulled Markström for an extra attacker, he scored a rather unique empty-net goal. After Charlie Coyle dove to knock a puck out of the defensive zone, Olivier used a burst of speed to race past Dougie Hamilton and have a clear path to the net. Hamilton chopped at Olivier’s stick in desperation, breaking the twig and sending the puck to the corner, but referee Liam Maaskant immediately awarded the goal for Hamilton denying a clear goal-scoring chance with the net empty.
